


Cool Rider

by StarlightAfterAStorm



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 00:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11703084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightAfterAStorm/pseuds/StarlightAfterAStorm
Summary: How did Jughead get to be such a Cool Rider? It starts one summer with a sunshiny blonde and her Barbie bike.Prompt Fill: Little Betty teaches Little Jughead how to ride a bike because no one at home taught him and he's too embarrassed to ask for Archie for help.





	Cool Rider

**Author's Note:**

> Raptorlily gave me a prompt and it was too cute!
> 
> I will admit my heart hurt when I first read it. Poor Juggie. It's ok. Betty's there for him. 
> 
> Little Archie technically shows up. He has one line :P

_ "No ordinary boy is gonna do, _

_ I want a rider that's cool" _

\- Michelle Pfeiffer, _Cool Rider_

* * *

“Juggie come on!” 

Flamebright hair streaks down the driveway of the Andrews house. A slower yellow and pink streak meets the two boys at the end of the street. Betty Cooper’s sunshine hair is streaming behind her as she pedals wildly on her pink and teal Barbie bicycle. 

The three of them are ten years old and this is the first time Betty and Archie are being allowed to go to Pop’s with no adult supervision. Archie and Betty want to waste no time and decided to bike rather than walk to the Chocklit Shoppe. 

The problem is that even if Jughead had a bike, he doesn’t really know how to ride one. 

His parents don’t exactly have the money to get new things. Or sometimes even hand me down things. Especially since the new baby came. Jughead loves his sister, Jellybean. She’s really cute and laughs when he makes faces and she only cried when he held her that one time. And now she's a little bit older and she can walk and talk and they can play together. 

Sometimes, _just sometimes though_ , he wishes he could just have a bike instead. Maybe if he actually had a bike, his mom or dad could take the time to teach him. 

It would be nice to be able to ride with his friends instead of walking everywhere.

“Wait, Little Archie! Juggie’s walking! Wait for us!”

Archie’s redashishair bike is already a whole block ahead of them and he can’t hear Betty’s pleas. 

“It’s ok Betty. Go catch up with Little Archie. I’ll meet you guys at Pop’s.”

But Betty is Betty and even though he can tell she wants to get to Pop’s and finally have a whole milkshake to herself without her mother’s eagle eye, Jughead also knows that she’s gonna walk and stay with him. The thought puts a warm feeling in his chest but that always happens around Betty so it’s easy to ignore by now. 

Betty hops off of her brightly decorated bike to walk sedately next to him. 

“Juggie. I can’t just _leave_ you here. How about you ride my bike? I can sit on the handlebars. I’ve done that with Little Archie before and he only dropped me badly that one time."

Betty's makes a big deal of looking around them before leaning in closely. She brings her hand up to her mouth to make the message more covert as she speaks in a hushed voice.

" _Don’t tell my mom_. She thinks I crashed all by myself.”

Betty pulls back to look at him, a bright smile in place. Her eyes are sparkling with mischief and Jughead’s heart beats a little bit faster. On any other day that admission would bring out a bark of surprised laughter. But his ears are red for a different reason and he can't quite meet her eyes. He can’t even fully appreciate the fact that Betty Cooper _lied_ to her mother. He’s too busy wondering if he can get away with fudging the truth about why he can’t do ride the bike with Betty on the handlebars.

“I can’t do that Betts.”

Betty’s head tilts and her eyes narrow in confusion before they get wide and angry.

“Because it’s _pink_? Jughead, it’s just a _color_. It’s doesn’t matter. It’s still just a bike. I can’t believe that’s something that you actually care about-”

Jughead stops them both, putting his hands on Betty’s shoulders. 

“Hey. Betty. It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

Betty purses her lips, looking up at him and Jughead runs out of words. He feels clumsy and tongue tied. She raises a brow, waiting for his answer. She prompts him again. 

“What?”

“I-“

Jughead feels like he’s choking on how he wants to explain himself.

“I… I don’t really know how to ride, Betty.”

Betty shakes her head a little and turns to look at her bike. 

“I mean I know it’ll be a little bit hard to ride with me on the handlebars, Juggie, but I’m sure it won’t take us too long to figure it out.”

“No. Betty not that. I mean-”

She’s looking up at him so earnestly that he can’t not give her an honest answer. He’s actually surprised that she and Archie haven't figured it out by now. 

“I mean I can’t ride a bike. Any bike. I never really learned how to.”

“You can’t?”

There’s the surprise he was expecting. He can see her wince at her own tone before shaking her head and trying again. 

“Ok. It doesn’t matter if you can’t Jug. How about I ride my bike and _you_ sit on the handlebars?”

Jughead huffs out a laugh before shaking his own head in the negative. 

They continue a little farther up the road, Archie’s bike far out of sight at this point. Betty keeps sneaking peeks at him. He gives her another block before she asks the question that must be burning on her tongue. 

She doesn’t even last that long.

“Do you want to learn how to ride a bike? I’m sure if you asked Mr. Andrews or Little Archie, they wouldn’t mind teaching you.”

The thought of asking Archie or Mr. Andrews that, when Jughead feels like he already asks so much of them makes Jughead feel… ashamed. Mr. Andrews already feeds Jughead’s black hole of a stomach when the Jones’ don’t have enough for all four people. He taught Jughead how to play football and baseball and basketball when he was teaching Archie too. He lets Jughead and his dad crash at the Andrews’ when the fights with Jughead’s mom get really bad. 

Jughead shakes his head again, unable to vocalize all of those reasons why he feels like he cant ask another thing of Archie and Mr. Andrews.

“Ok then. How about you come over this weekend and I can teach you? Little Archie’s gonna be at that Summer Junior Football Camp Thingy Whatever. You can borrow his bike! He won’t mind. I know how to pick the lock on his garage where he locks his bike up. And then we can practice in front of the house.”

Jughead’s silent for too long. Betty is the one who stops them this time. 

“If… If you think it’s something to be embarrassed about, it’s really not. You know that, right Juggie?”

Jughead nods and gives a short answer.

“Yeah.”

Of course Betty doesn’t accept that. She stops them again to take one of his hands and uses her other hand to forcibly turn his face to hers. She quirks an eyebrow at him, a trick he taught her two summers ago, and gives him her best sunshine smile. He knows the answer she's looking for.

“Yes.”

Betty nods and lets go of him again so they can keep walking. She continues on as if they never paused. 

“And I’m sure it won’t take us very long. You've always been a quick learner.”

“Yeah, when it comes to reading books or geography.”

“And sports too, Juggie! Even though you didn’t like it, you were really good at baseball. You’ve got good hand eye coordination.”

“Yeah it’s just the running part I’m not a fan of.”

Jughead catches her eye out of the corner of his and the two of them share a smile. 

“So Saturday then? And we can practice in front of the house. Or! Or we can go to that road? By the river in the forest? That big wide empty area? Nobody is ever there so it’ll just be the two of us. I can bring food for a picnic and everything!”

Jughead seems to be catching Betty’s enthusiasm. His smile comes as easy as it always does around Betty, even when he’s trying not to smile. 

“Ok.”

“Ok!”

Betty giggles out her affirmation and hops a little in happiness. The sight of her so happy, even at his expense, makes Jughead’s heart twist in a good way. He doesn’t even care that it takes them another 15 minutes to get to Pop’s with an annoyed Archie already halfway through his burger.

* * *

 Saturday morning is shadowed and foggy and Jughead Jones hates everything.

They’ve already been out in the forest field for almost an hour. Jughead should be grateful that the summer heat hasn’t killed the coolness of the morning fog but all he feels is dumb. He feels really dumb. Betty is super nice and patient and everything he expects Betty Cooper to be, but he can’t do anything but wobble for a few seconds before freaking out and putting his feet back on the ground. Jughead will never admit that it might also be the soft touch of Betty’s hands on his back and hands that might be causing him to overheat and keeps him from concentrating fully on silly things like balance. 

“I keep telling you Betty, I don’t have any balance.”

“You just have to trust yourself Juggie. Once you get the rhythm of it, it’ll be fine.”

“I don’t have trust. I don’t have rhythm.”

Betty levels a flat look at him and it is the first time this morning that she’s had anything less than a polite, encouraging smile on her face. It makes him smile back at her. 

“Ok fine. Lunch then. And then we’re going to try again. You’re going to have to go a bit faster to get the right momentum. By yourself this time.”

Betty wags her finger in his face and his grin widens. 

She sets out a full picnic for the two of them. Sandwiches, cookies, and lemonade in a thermos wrapped with an ice pack. After he demolishes the lunch, Betty she uses her wide eyes to get him to try again. 

“Please Juggie. You were really getting it that time.”

He puts up a bit of a fight but of course he caves because he can’t remember a time he's ever said “no” to Betty and really meant it. 

It takes more time than he wants to admit, but Jughead finds out that he actually does do better when Betty stops supporting him and he goes a little bit faster. As nervous as he was to have her let go and take her hands away as a steadying source, the moment she takes her distracting hands off of him he really _can_ concentrate better on keeping his balance. It’s a pleasant discovery realizing that he actually does have pretty good balance when he puts his mind to it. 

He’s riding circles around Betty, standing next to her own bike, when she yells out a new challenge. 

“That’s great Jug! Now let’s see if you can support me on the handlebars.”

Riding by himself is one thing. Riding with a precious precarious package on the handlebars is another. 

“Betty! What if I drop you? What if I crash and drop us both?”

“It’ll be fine! I trust you!”

Jughead thinks that her earnest eyes will be the death of him. And it almost is for the next hour or so until they perfect balancing the both of them. He can't decide if Betty holding onto him from behind is more distracting or Betty balancing in front of him while he pedals is more distracting. In the one scenario, she's holding onto him. In the next scenario, he's holding onto her.Either way, it's not an experience Jughead feels he should let himself get used to. 

They try at least three more different ways of having both of them on the bike before Betty deems Jughead an acceptable enough biker. 

“We’re doing it! We’re really doing it Jughead!”

Jughead huffs and puffs a little, not used to putting in quite this much physical effort in anything.

“I think you mean _I’m_ doing it.”

“‘It’s ‘ _we’_ Juggie. We’re a _team_ and we did it together.”

Jughead thinks he can get used to that. 

* * *

Seven years later, Jughead Jones parks in the driveway of the Cooper house. His leather jacket fits snugly over his shoulders, the serpents on the back a symbol he thinks he’s finally gotten used to. 

Betty opens the door for him even before he raises his hand to knock. Her sunshine smile twists his heart up even stronger than it used to when they were kids. He hopes the feeling never goes away. 

“Juggie!” 

She throws herself into his arms and he feels a little guilty they haven’t seen much of each other in the past few weeks. 

“Date night? I thought we could go to Pop’s. You look like you could use a milkshake.”

“Sure. Walking?”

“I’ve got a bike.”

“A bike? When did you get a bike?”

“Viper let me borrow his.”

Betty’s head tilts and her eyes narrow in confusion before she sees the Harley parked in the driveway. 

“Oh my god. Jug. Do you even have a license for this? When did you learn how to ride a motorcycle? Can I take a look at the engine?”

“Viper’s been teaching me the past couple of weeks. It’s why I’ve been so busy. And I got my license last week. You can’t exactly be in a biker gang without knowing how to ride a bike. I’d ask Viper before looking at the engine though.”

Betty bites her lip and Jughead can see the excitement in her eyes as she runs her fingers over the handlebars. Jughead pulls her away with some difficulty, caging her in his arms even as she’s still twisted around to look at the bike. That sunshine smile is still on her face. She turns the full force of it to him and he can’t be blamed for being unable to resist kissing her. 

Betty throws her arms over his shoulders, sinking into the kiss immediately and pressing herself ever closer. It’s a kiss that lingers, a kiss trying to make up for lost time, and it sends fizzy bubbles skittering up Jughead’s spine at the sweet heat of it. Jughead kisses her once, twice, three times more before he leans back slightly. Just barely keeping his lips out of reach, he and Betty are still sharing breaths when he asks, 

“Want me to teach you how to ride it? I’ve got to return the favor after all." 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know if you did!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr too at the same username:
> 
> starlightafterastorm
> 
> I'm always open to flailing about OTPs and puppies (and other various cute animals). :D


End file.
